The leaked Russian-led proposal—which also has support from the likes of China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates—wants to "[provide] equal rights to manage the Internet including in regard to the allotment, assignment and reclamation of Internet numbering." Or in other words, undercut ICANN and give that bit of control over to governments. It also outlines spam-blocking provisions broad enough to cover most emails.

For the next two weeks, the ITU—a United Nations agency that was formed to regulate telegraph lines …
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All this really means is some tension and uneasiness over the disagreement as the conference moves forward. And maybe a bit of a lock-up down the road if everyone refuses to play nice on other topics because of disagreement here. All in all, it seems unlikely anything will change in any appreciable way, but you can rest-assured that your standard Internet bad guys are trying to ruin the web nonetheless. [Reuters]